Before my time in the wine trade and before my time with small children in the house a favourite cousin (Simon) and me would spend a fair few weekends over the summer camping and surfing on the northern shores of Devon and Cornwall.
Simon is a few years younger than me but is still of the age where he was exposed to the music of the 1980s first hand. So, we both spent the decade sorting the wheat from the chaff finding out the obscure gems of the time (Hüsker Dü any one?)
Simon did and still does for that matter live in Potters Bar in Hertfordshire, where oddly rhyming slang remains as popular as it once did in the real East End of London. Or maybe that’s just Simon, I’ve never been that sure as a lot of it I suspect has been created by him personally. On the summer weekends away I’d spend time simply deciphering – “Holly Ghost”
Now, as far as obscure gems go, putting Hüsker Dü to one side for a moment there’s a wine that has been flying out of the doors from Yapp HQ for literally months now. The Côtes De Thongue Tradition 2008 from the Languedoc (I quote “A mid-weight, forward-drinking, crowd-pleasing southern red with a palate of juicy garrigue fruit over subtle tannins”) was literally huge all last year with both our customers and the press relishing the wine.
Last night I tried the new vintage of “the Thongue” – the 2009 that was certainly as good as, if not better then the 2008 – and at £7.95 a bottle I suspect we’ll ship lots more in 2010. So with all my cousins word play still in the back of my mind I was hoping to avoid thinking “the 2009 vintage – it’s all gone Côtes De Thongue” but thankfully this couldn’t be further from the truth!
